GUILLERMO DEL TORO'S PINOCCHIO | FAMILY MOVIE REVIEW INFORMATION FOR PARENTS AND KIDS

"GUILLERMO DEL TORO'S PINOCCHIO"
(2022) (voices of Gregory Mann, David Bradley) (PG)

QUICK TAKE:: Stop-Motion-Animation Fantasy: A wooden puppet draws the attention of various people when it's turned into a sentient being.

PLOT:

Decades after the fact, Italian wood crafter and clockmaker Geppetto (voice of DAVID BRADLEY) still grieves the death of his 10-year-old son, Carlo, from a bomb dropped on a church back in 1916.

Now a shell of his former self, that grief and anger result in him chopping down a pine tree grown from Carlo's prized pinecone and then drunkenly carving part of that into a wooden puppet boy. That night, as the literary-minded Sebastian J. Cricket (EWAN McGREGOR) looks on, a magical being, Wood Sprite (voice of TILDA SWINTON), shows up, takes pity on Geppetto, and breathes life into that puppet, turning him into Pinocchio (voice of GREGORY MANN).

Geppetto is taken aback by this development, especially considering that this boy's behavior is very much unlike the seemingly perfect Carlo. But the sentient puppet draws the interest of carnival master Count Volpe (voice of CHRISTOPH WALTZ) and his monkey assistant, Spazzatura (voice of CATE BLANCHETT) who want to make Pinocchio the headliner of their traveling show.

When it's learned that the puppet is immortal -- following a run-in with Death (voice of TILDA SWINTON) who sends him back to the world of the living -- that draws the interest of fascist military man Podesta (voice of RON PERLMAN) who sees Pinocchio as the ultimate soldier and an upgrade from his son, Candlewick (voice of FINN WOLFHARD).

As Pinocchio obliviously reacts to all that attention, Geppetto comes to realize that the puppet is the son he covets and thus sets out to rescue him from those who are using him for ulterior reasons.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?: It's a cartoon (done via stop-motion animation), so some probably will.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG: For dark thematic material, violence, peril, some rude humor, and brief smoking.

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